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Jonathan Weisman The Internal Revenue Service spent $4.1 million on a single conference in Southern California in 2010, paying top dollar for luxury suites, $27,500 for a keynote speaker and tens of thousands of dollars for gifts to the 2,600 people who attended, according to a newly released Treasury Department audit. But the audit also shows that such expenditures fell dramatically when the Obama White House clamped down [...] The infamous Las Vegas bash held by the obscure General Services Administration wasn’t that unusual after all. The lavish 2010 conference, which cost over $800,000, had lawmakers fuming last year. But a new congressional report shows taxpayers picked up the tab for at least 894 conferences in 2012 — to the tune of $340 million. Those figures only cover “big-ticket” conferences — or those that cost $100,000 or more — so the [...] The poster-girl of the US DoD Allison Barrie, just announced a “new” military program that can monitor, analyze, translate and transcript ALL MEDIA worldwide. Obviously there’s no coincidence in the timing of such announcement after the CIA/MOSSAD psyop of the film “Innocence of Muslims”. Now social media websites that share and stream worldwide media, like YouTube and US Stream, are officially under surveillance of the US DoD 24/7. It’s not like they [...] Government officials blame unfair competition from China for the collapse of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, but such concerns didn’t stop the federal government from breaking stimulus program rules to use Chinese solar panels atop a federal building housing the offices of a senator, congressman and several agencies. Even the contractor questioned whether Chinese-made panels could be used under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the stimulus program that mandated use of [...] From Newsmax: Insisting that the General Services Administration’s bureaucrats-gone-wild party in Las Vegas may be the “tip of the iceberg,” Rep. John Mica tells Newsmax.TV that wasteful practices by the agency could top billions when all is said and done. “It has to be the poster child for bad management,” declared Mica in an exclusive interview after emerging from Wednesday’s hearing on the embattled agency by the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, [...] WASHINGTON, D.C. (WUSA) – The U.S. Government won’t explain, but a 9 News Now investigation has found $30 million in unreported bonuses for fiscal year 2011 – making the already troubled General Services Administration’s total bonus pool nearly $44 million. Click here to search GSA payroll records uncovered in WUSA9 investigation by name, city, and job title: http://www.wusa9.com/news/database/ “Just outrageous,” said U.S. Rep John Mica, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. [...] The General Services Administration spent more than $268,732 in taxpayer money to host another lavish event, Reps. John Mica (R-Fla.) and Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) said Thursday. The agency — already reeling from the scandal over its $822,000 employee conference at a Las Vegas spa in 2010 — held a performance reward ceremony at the Crystal Gateway Marriott across the Potomac from Washington in November of that year, the congressmen said at a news conference. The expenses [...] General Services Administration, which held $820K conference in Las Vegas, now embattled with new scandal Nearly 100 General Services Administration employees, many of them high-ranking, claimed more than $750,000 in travel expenses in a nine-month period, despite the fact that they were assigned to work [...] PITTSBURGH – May 24, 2012 (WPVI) — A cafeteria worker at Pittsburgh’s federal office building is being treated for possible flesh-eating bacteria, but health officials say those who also work or eat at the facility face no threat. Officials with the Allegheny County Health Department and the General Services Administration, which runs the Moorhead Federal Building downtown, say the worker was apparently infected from suffering a cut during outdoor activity. http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8675093 Two senior Senate Republicans on Monday blasted plans by judges in the 9th Circuit to hold a conference in Hawaii this August that they said could run up a tab of $1 million or more, and includes a schedule of sport fishing, yoga, surfing lessons and Zumba dancing lessons. Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) last week wrote to 9th Circuit [...] A government department has been forced into removing a $3,500 employment advert for a magician after being accused of an ‘abuse’ of taxpayers’ money. Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) yesterday pulled a help-wanted advert for someone to perform ‘experiential exercises, physical energizers, magic tricks, word games, humor and teambuilding exercises’ at a training event in Maryland next month. The job description required ‘a unique model of translating magic [...] To the Republican National Committee, President Obama’s recent travel in the last two days to three swing states is more than a coincidence. And now it has drawn formal complaint by the RNC into what it calls a “misuse of government funds” by the Obama campaign.
Reince Priebus, the RNC’s chair, filed the formal complaint with the Government Accountability Office late Wednesday afternoon. “Particularly in recent weeks, President Obama has been passing off campaign travel as [...] #1 In 2011, the National Institutes of Health spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop. #2 The National Institutes of Health has spent more than 5 million dollars on a website called Sexpulse that is targeted at “men who use the Internet to seek sex with men”. According to Fox News, the website “includes pornographic images of homosexual sex as well as naked and scantily clad men” and [...] By Roll Call Staff Posted at 1:01 p.m. today Well after an inspector general began auditing a lavish Las Vegas conference, Jeff Neely, who headed the General Services Administration’s San Francisco office, took his wife on a taxpayer-funded trip to Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Neely boasted in a November 2011 email that the trip was a “birfday” gift. (Fiddy must be so proud.) His wife responded positively to the gesture. “It’s yo birfday … [...] WASHINGTON (AP) — The General Services Administration investigator who revealed a wild agency spending spree said Monday he’s investigating possible bribery and kickbacks, and has already recommended criminal charges to the Justice Department. The key figure in the scandal invoked his right to remain silent at the House hearing. Inspector General Brian Miller made clear that he’s not done investigating GSA current and former officials, following his lengthy report April 2 [...] The government official on the frontlines of the scandal involving a wasteful government conference, U.S. General Services Administration regional commissioner Jeffrey Neely, will invoke his 5th amendment right against self-incrimination, his lawyer Preston Burton tells ABC News. He won’t comment on the $822,751 conference, many of the expenditures for which the GSA Inspector General called “excessive” and “wasteful.” He won’t comment on the bizarre awards ceremony, or the commemorative coins, the [...] A General Services Administration executive will assert his right to remain silent at a congressional hearing next week into the agency’s lavish spending practices, his lawyer said on Friday. It was learned that the official, Jeffrey Neely, also could face a possible criminal investigation. Neely was placed on leave by the GSA’s new leadership. He was commissioner for the Public Buildings Service in the Pacific Rim region, covering Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada [...] By Jonathan Strong
Officials at the General Services Administration invented fake awards as an excuse to hold taxpayer-funded dinner events at conferences, according to an interview transcript obtained by Roll Call. At one such event, GSA bestowed the “jackass award” upon an employee, a GSA employee told the agency’s Office of Inspector General, according to the transcript. GSA is under fire because the inspector general revealed in an April 2 report that [...] The General Services Administration to Las Vegas: We’re just not that into you — anymore. The agency, whose lavish 2010 conference in Sin City drew controversy — and led to the firing or discipline of eight officials — was slated to go back to the scene of the proverbial crime later this month. But alas for slots lovers, the GSA has cancelled “GreenUP 2012 Training Conference and Vendor Showcase,” set to take place in a Vegas hotel [...] By Timothy R. Smith An investigation by the inspector general of the General Services Administration found rampant abuse of an employee awards program of the agency’s Pacific Rim region, the same region that has come under fire for spending more than $800,000 on a Las Vegas training conference for 300 employees. The report on the “Hats Off” employee recognition program, obtained by The Washington Post, found numerous violations of agency directives, theft and misuse of [...] Lisa Rein At the start of his mind-reading act, Bob Garner asked a federal employee for the name of his dead dog. He asked someone else to recall a person close to them who had passed away. Then he shared some of the messages the deceased sent from the other side. Each time, the self-described mentalist and “motivational speaker with a ‘WOW’ factor” was able to divine the truth. What he [...] (CNN) – Congressional investigators are accusing the General Services Administration of violating its employee gift limit with rewards of iPods, digital cameras and other electronics, just as a video emerged of a lavish conference that shows employees drinking and making jokes about wasteful spending. The video, first obtained by The Huffington Post on Friday, offered a glimpse inside the agency’s $820,000 conference in Las Vegas. An administration official confirmed the authenticity of [...] Total cost of catered food and beverages was $146,527 GSA officials hosted several semi-private parties in their hotel rooms or suites, which were funded by the taxpayer
Embarrassing footage of the General Services Administration’s now infamous $820,000 Las Vegas conference has emerged, showing employees destroying office property, downing margaritas, putting on magic shows, and frolicking with a clown. The conference [...] Amid fallout over a lavish General Services Administration conference that cost top officials at the agency their jobs, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta late Thursday admitted to paying just $17,000 for his commuting costs for 27 trips back to his Monterey, Calif., home on a military aircraft. Before accepting the job as defense secretary,Mr. Panetta negotiated his right to commute home to California nearly every weekend using a military equivalent of a Gulfstream jet, as his job [...] 4/5/2012 | FOXNATION.COM Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s office issued the following press release regarding a video they uncovered of a General Services Administration (GSA) employee bragging about lavish taypayer funded perks he enjoyed while working there. =================== Federal Worker “American Idle” Uncovered: Winning Video Skit from Taxpayer Funded Luxury Las Vegas GSA Convention Video featuring Federal Employees jokes about never being under Inspector General Investigation, Lavish GSA Spending The [...] Federal Heads Roll Over $822,000 Las Vegas Party (NEWSER) — What happens in Vegas … has come back to bite a federal agency that decided to throw itself an $822,000 conference that was every bit as posh as it was ill-advised. Martha Johnson, the administrator of the General Services Administration, has quit over the brouhaha, acknowledging in her resignation letter that “taxpayer dollars were squandered” in a “significant misstep.” Two of [...] General Services Administration head Martha Johnson has resigned along with two of her deputies, reportedly over an impending inspector general’s report detailing lavish spending on a Vegas conference for a handful of government employees: Organizers spent $835,000 on the event, which was attended by 300 employees. The expenses included $147,000 in airfare and lodging at the hotel for six planning trips by a team of organizers. Among the other expenses were [...] Total cost of catered food and beverages was $146,527 GSA officials also hosted several semi-private parties in their hotel rooms or suites, which were funded by the taxpayer A senior government official resigned Monday after a report concluded her agency improperly paid for an ‘over-the-top’ training session near Las Vegas that allegedly featured a mind reader, a clown, a [...] WASHINGTON – The head of the General Services Administration resigned from her post Monday, and two other officials were fired amid an investigation into excessive spending at a 2010 training conference that featured a clown, a comedian and mindreader, Federal News Radioreports. Martha Johnson, the GSA administrator, submitted her resignation on Monday, citing a “significant mis-step” at the agency to the tune of more than $800,000. Robert Peck, the commissioner of the [...] NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — A massive cyberattack that led to avulnerability in RSA’s SecurID tags earlier this year also victimized Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many other big-named companies, according to a new analysis released this week. A list of 760 organizations that were attacked was presented to Congress recently and published by security analyst Brian Krebs on his blogMonday. The list is the first glimpse into the pervasiveness of the attack that brought [...] The number of limousines owned by the U.S. government increased by 73 percent during the first two years of the Obama administration, according to a new report by iWatch news. An analysis of General Services Administration data reveals the federal fleet has increased from 238 limos in 2008—the last year of the Bush Administration— to 412 limos in 2010. Much of the increase was recorded in the [...] |
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